There are a large number and wide variety of home and office appliances and physical devices available for the consumer on the market. It is becoming more common for such consumer electronic goods and appliances to be connected to each other, and/or to be connected to the internet to enable a user to control and/or monitor a particular device via the internet, when the user is located remote from the particular device itself.
The proliferation of connected devices in the home/office creates a need for a simpler user experience. In the 1990s, a household typically contained only one physical device that was connected to the internet—the personal computer (PC). Today's households and offices generally have several connected devices (e.g. PCs, smartphones, tablet computers, TVs, smart thermostats, etc.), and it is feasible that future households will have tens, perhaps hundreds, of connected devices. Examples of connected devices and software applications (“apps”) currently available on the market are physical devices and apps which enable a user to monitor their energy consumption (e.g. gas and/or electricity), and determine how they are using the energy in their home/office. For example, a particular physical device may be a smart energy monitor that is able to determine how much energy is used in a home for different categories of energy usage, such as lighting, heating, cooking etc. The physical device may be connected to the internet and may be remotely monitored by a user via a user interface (UI) or app on a user's smartphone. Another example of a connected physical device is a smart thermostat, which could be monitored remotely by a user and may be controllable remotely to allow a user to turn the heating on he returns to his home/office, or to turn the heating system off automatically when he indicates he is no longer in his home.
Ordinary consumers may not have the time, interest or ability to devote their attention to individually monitoring connected devices (e.g. to check that they are operating as expected). For example, a typical consumer may not have the time or interest to engage with their smart thermostat to control their heating system and would rather use a device which automatically controls their heating system. For some users, it would thus be preferable if the connected devices were largely autonomous, working unobtrusively in the background, taking care of themselves in regard to provisioning of resources, updating, and everyday performance.
Furthermore, ordinary consumers may not have the time, interest or ability to configure the devices to create a “connected environment” (e.g. a “connected home” or “connected office”. Creating a “connected home” typically requires the use of an in-home hub device (a hardware device) to which all physical devices and appliances are connected. The hub may enable low-power edge devices in the home/office to connect to the internet, to services accessible via the cloud, or to other devices via the internet. This is generally enabled by the use of a gateway (a network node, telecommunications router or proxy server that is able to route data between networks that may use different communication protocols, or a computer/computer program that is configured to perform the same tasks). The gateway may be accessible via the hub, or the hub may contain a computer program/software that performs the task of a gateway. The gateway translates between internet protocols and different communication protocols (e.g. the ZigBee® protocol used to create personal area networks).
Generally speaking, electronic devices have previously been connected to the internet in an uncoordinated manner, with each device manufacturer using their own methods and preferred communication protocols. Consumers who own different electronic devices from different manufacturers/vendors are often faced with the difficulty of having to use different techniques to configure each electronic device to connect to the internet, which makes it difficult for a user to monitor/control their devices remotely. Furthermore, there may be a lack of interoperability between electronic devices even if they are advertised as being able to connect to other electronic devices.
The present applicant has recognised the need to provide a platform which more simply enables multiple different home and office electronic devices to be connected to the internet, and to each other.